Browsing Tag

thought leaders

Leadership,

Thought Leaders Usually Aren’t

Summer time is here, so I’m recycling some of my favorite posts from past years. This one was especially fun to write because I was on a roll — or rather, on a rant! So I’m reposting this for your summer reading amusement:

Please don’t call me a thought leader. Last week I had coffee with an acquaintance who used the phrase to describe me. He meant it as a compliment — and I took it as such. But I still corrected him.

“No,” I insisted, “I’m not a thought leader. Please don’t call me that. It’s an overused term …

Junkyard Management,

Prophets vs Leaders

A friend of mine is sometimes described as more prophet than leader; he’s excellent at preaching truth in cultural context, but weak at organizational leadership. He can cast a vision and challenge us, but he can’t implement that vision.

You probably know people just like this. A lot of them are in ministry. Like prophets, they make passionate and loud calls for change. But they aren’t so good at actually leading people into making the change.

You know what the cheaper and less impressive modern day version of a prophet is? All those people who describe themselves as thought leaders.…